This is the reality for thousands of over 50s in Britain as the government tries to battle what is now a serious pension crisis.

Plug your pension shortfall: There are a number of ways to boost your retirement income

Recent research from investment firm Barings found that one in 10 British workers have no plan to retire because they don’t think they can afford to.

Meanwhile the Pensions Policy Institute calculated that to reach an income of about £11,000 a year in retirement – still a relatively modest amount - 45 per cent of today’s over 50s to pensioners (that is those aged between 50 and state pension age in 2011) may need to work for an additional 11 YEARS past state pension age.

However, if you want to enjoy your retirement in relative comfort it’s not too late to do something about it.

Renting out a room or your driveway

If you are comfortable about sharing your home with someone, this can be a great way to supplement your income. Better still, under the rent a room scheme you can earn £4,250 a year from it, tax free.

Richard Stevenson has been renting out the spare room in his house in Nottingham for over a year through Spareroom.co.uk. The retired 64-year-old says the income helps to supplement his pension pot and ensure he is ‘not left to rattle around in a big old house’ on his own.

Richard earns an extra £300 a month from renting out the room to professionals. He told This is Money: ‘It’s very easy to use the site and whenever I advertise the room, it is usually only about a week before someone takes it’.

For those with space for a car renting out a driveway is another less invasive way to cash in on your property. Using sites like ParkatmyHouse.com, you can advertise your driveway or parking space to thousands of drivers.

The site says that while figures vary between cities, customers can earn anything between £100 and £3,000 a year from their drive.

The biggest earnings to be had are those near airports and large transport hubs, but even just being close to a school or popular high street can make a tidy £500 a year.

Maximise your Isa savings

If you are close to retirement it is probably not the time to be putting your money into a high risk investment Isa, but you should still be making the most of your cash Isa allowance where you can.

Make sure it’s the first place you put any of your hard-earned cash to protect it from the tax man.

Rates aren’t fantastic at the moment, but if you bag one of thetop paying Isas – around the 3 per cent mark, you’ll have guaranteed tax-free cash, protected from any economic crashes – a good reliable source of income in your retirement.

Additional pension saving

It’s never too late to put some money into a pension, and whether you are nearing retirement or choosing to take a part time job past retirement age you should still take advantage of a workplace pension.

Don’t underestimate the fact that any employer contributions basically mean free money for you, so you should make the most of them. Plus, your money will be attracting tax relief in a pension and every little helps.

You can choose to start saving into a new pension whilst simultaneously receiving an existing one if you need the money from the first, and if you save less than £18,000 into the new one before you retire you won’t need to buy an annuity, but can cash-in the full amount.

Delaying state pension payments

If you can afford to delay drawing your state pension, it could leave you better off in the long run.

For every five weeks you put off claiming your state pension, you will receive an extra 1 per cent. This equates to an extra 10.4 per cent for every full year you put off claiming.

Alternatively if you choose to put off claiming your pension for 12 consecutive months you can choose to take a one-off lump sum payment in addition to your normal state pension.

The lump sum will be based on the amount of normal weekly state pension you would have received with interest added and compounded. It will not affect any other benefits you are entitled to.

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Shop around: Do not just take the annuity that your pension provider offers - look for the best rate instead.

Shopping around for an annuity

When the time comes for you to buy your annuity, shopping around is essential. Your provider will not necessarily be able to offer you the best deal. In fact, retirement specialists MGM Advantage estimate that accepting the rate offered by your pension provider could leave you of pocket by as much as 46 per cent.

However, it is easy to see why people are baffled by the bewildering choice of different annuity options available which is why you need to be sure exactly what your provider is offering, what you are entitled to, and what you can get elsewhere.

Working for yourself

Many people find stopping work altogether at retirement can be a bit of a shock to the system, so often pensioners will continue to work part-time if they are able to.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics show 358,000 more people aged 65 or over are currently working than was the case a decade ago.

At freelance website, People Per Hour, the number of retirees looking for work has surged 137 per cent over the last 12 months. The average hourly rate on the site is £22.

'Retiring doesn’t come cheap so increasing numbers of pensioners are turning to freelance work to help fund their golden years,' said Xenios Thrasyvoulou, CEO and founder of PeoplePerHour.

'Many pensioners appear to be embracing the advantages presented by the digital revolution and using the internet to sell their skills from home.'

Potential to cash in: Those whose home makes them asset rich can use equity release.

Equity release

Generally considered as a last resort, this is a way to get a fairly sizeable extra income, but it does come at a price. Equity release plans can be very expensive and also mean you end up leaving considerably less for your children.

However, with more regulation in the industry it is gradually becoming a more popular move. There has been a real change in opinion towards equity release in recent years, as more and more older couples make the conscious decision to enjoy their retirement, over leaving everything for their kids.

As attitudes and circumstances change, it’s likely that more people will decide equity release is for them, but it’s important to remember that it is not without its problems.

Steve Wilkie, managing director of Responsible Equity Release, comments: ‘One of the main concerns surrounding equity release in the past has been that people thought there was a chance they could lose their home. That is no longer the case.

‘All plans carry the right to remain in your property for life and the more attractive plans allow you to keep the deeds to your property and retain 100 per cent home ownership.’

Wilkie adds: ‘Retirement-related plans account for about 60 per cent of all the equity release plans we handle. Of that 60 per cent, 10-15 per cent are people in retirement who need an income top up because their pension income is not as high as they were expecting, and they're struggling to cover costs.’

‘Where pensions have been failing people in retirement, their homes have not. Having tied up significant amounts of money in their property over the years, pensioners are now learning that they are able to leverage this to help bolster their retirement income.